Anti-fouling water treatment films, contact lenses that need not be cleaned, anti-fouling fishing tools, long lifespan underwater equipment, ship coating for avoiding barnacle growth, and the like are highly value-added, low energy consumption, and sustainable utilization of resources, thereby being critical in future products. For example, fishing nets in cage aquaculture are dipped in sea water for long time, and halobios easily grow in meshes to increase the weight of the fishing nets. Moreover, the halobios may block the mesh, and the sea water cannot be exchanged through the mesh. As a result, oxygen exchange in water is insufficient, and shellfish on the mesh may cut caught fish. The cut fish can be infected by bacteria and even die.
As such, the functional treatment of anti-fouling is important for underwater equipment. Chemical modification involves grafting or coating anti-fouling molecules to the product surface, thereby increasing the hydrophilicity, hydration abilities, or steric hindrance of the product surface to the pollutants. As such, an anti-fouling effect can be achieved. The anti-fouling materials prepared by surface chemical modification often encounter two main problems. (1) If the anti-fouling molecules are directly grafted onto the product requiring the anti-fouling treatment, the grafting sites on the product surface for modifying the anti-fouling molecules will be limited. As such, the coverage ratio of the grafted anti-fouling material is obviously insufficient, which dramatically affects the anti-fouling ability. (2) If the anti-fouling material is directly coated on the product surface, the coverage ratio of the anti-fouling material can be enhanced. However, the adhesion between the anti-fouling material and the product surface is weak, and the anti-fouling material can easily become peeled by the flow of water and then flow away. On the other hand, some products have a problem wherein the thickness of the anti-fouling coating is too thick, which causes the flow resistance to be too high, lowering the efficiency of the product.
Accordingly, a novel method of grafting a large amount of anti-fouling molecules to the product surface for enhancing the anti-fouling ability of the product is called for.